Nope. He let the computer do the job, apparently, this is GM's most sophisticated (and durable) automatic to date, as it supposedly hold gears during hard cornering and other attributes. You can also hear throttle blips too in the video.

"The car itself had no performance modifications outside of those planned for consumer production, which is scheduled to begin this fall."

Well all I can say is that I see a roll cage in the picture and who knows what other mods this car might have. Or maybe caddys will come with that standard????

The cars is absolutely stock...actually what you see adds no rigidity and adds weight if anything...

"From the GM Blog:

This is Kevin from Cadillac writing to provide clarification on the questions regarding the harness bar and racing seats in the 2009 CTS-V that set the new stock production sedan lap record on the Nordschleife.

This 2009 CTS-V that John Heinricy drove to set the record was an absolutely stock, right down to the production-spec Michelin Pilot Sport 2 tires, 2009 CTS-V with a few minor changes to add safety that wouldn't in any way positively impact the result. As Chris already posted, the item that people see in the car and refer to as a "roll bar" or "role cage" isn't either. This is simply a harness bar that mounts to the floor and B-pillars to enable the use of a six-point racing harness for added safety. This harness bar is intentionally installed in the car so that it DOES NOT increase the torsional rigidity of the chassis or in any way change the way the chassis will function so their testing and development work will be of value for the production car.

The racing seats are installed for added safety as well and don't positively impact the performance of this production-spec CTS-V because the lighter weight of the racing seats is a little more than offset by the added weight of the steel harness bar.

In all, this production CTS-V weighs a few pounds MORE than the production car because of the weight of the harness bar and the few bits of test equipment onboard."

What a phenomenal car...I love the looks and it is miles ahead of the previous gen CTS, especially the interior...

550HP, excellent MPG for that performance, and those kind of driving characteristics in a car that will come in priced close to the M3 most likely...